Gender critical campaigners have been accused of making “hateful” and “extremist” remarks at an event at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester after suggesting those who support trans rights have “broken brains” and so-called gender ideology is “an evil”.
Speaking on a panel event on the fringes of the conference, entitled ‘After the Supreme Court Ruling: what next for sex-based rights’, Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at Sex Matters, referred to trans women as “a man in a dress”.
Meanwhile Kate Barker, CEO of the LGB Alliance, claimed the medical establishment has been captured by “fanciful and malign ideology that tells gay people that they can they can be cured by making grotesque and permanent changes to their to their body”.
She added: “I don’t think I’m exaggerating to say this is an evil that is being visited on majority gay young people. The Supreme Court ruling clarified that sex means biological sex, and our task now has to be to strip out the poisonous homophobia of gender identity ideology from public life wherever we can.”
In April, the Supreme Court ruled trans women are not legally women under the Equalities Act – a judgement that has been hailed as a victory for cis women and girls.
But there are concerns about the impacts on trans people, amid fears they could be excluded from public life and unable to use facilities appropriate for their gender.
Speaking about those who have criticised the Supreme Court’s ruling on biological sex, Ms McAnena said: “I think their brains have been broken by the illogicality of trying to treat some men as women and thinking that makes them the good guys so now they can’t bear to be bad guys.
“And they remain afraid of trans activists and often afraid of their own children, you know, young adult children particularly.”
Meanwhile, former Tory MP Miriam Cates, who was also sitting on the panel, accused British schools of “actively encouraging children to believe this lie that men and men could become women, or that there is such a thing as gender identity”.
Christine Jardine, Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West, said there has been an increasing trend of “ignoring the fact that trans people exist and have rights and have existed quite happily within society for a very long time”.
“The way we move forward [from the Supreme Court ruling on biological sex] is we acknowledge the concern, we acknowledge that anxiety on all sides and we look for a way of resolving it in the best interests of everyone.”
“Right now, the loudest voices seem to be those that want to wind back progress on any trans rights and just pretend they don’t exist. And I find that worrying”, she added.
“On any subject, it doesn’t matter what the subject is, you cannot have a debate if you only listen to one side and you can’t make progress for everyone if you only listen to one side.”
Labour MP Richard Quigley said he was “appalled by the comments, but not surprised”.
“The Tory party are desperate to seem relevant and the only way they have found to do this is to insult and malign people”, he told The Independent.
“People just want to be allowed to be themselves, without fear or favour, just getting along with their neighbours. If Kemi had anything about her, she would distance herself from this event (and probably the Tory party as a whole).”
Steph Richards, founder of trans campaign group TransLucent added: “It is a great shame that the Conservative party has allowed such an extremist event to take place which is a violation of the human rights of trans people.
“Trans people have existed for millennia and its well documented… It doesn’t help the LGBTQ+ cause to echo the narratives of far-right evangelical organisations who are out to take away LGBTQ+ rights and women’s rights – and we’ve only got to look to America to see what the narrative is.”
Meanwhile, Conservative politician Andrew Boff, who earlier in the day had heckled a main stage panel session on gender identity, dubbed the views “hateful”.
He told The Independent: “What they can’t understand – and what they hate – is that trans people exist. I know it’s inconvenient for their binary view of the world, but trans people have been around for thousands of years and they don’t like it.”
“Back in 1987 we had the same arguments being presented that justified section 28 – because [they said] gay people we unnatural. They said we were a threat to children and that we were trying to convert children.”
Section 28 of the Local Government Act (1988) was a law that prevented local authorities from “intentionally promot[ing] homosexuality” or teaching “the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship”.
Mr Boff, who has been a Tory assembly member since 2008 and led the party in the body for three years, added: “What happens in a fringe meeting is up to their own little hateful selves… What I’m offended by is that on the main stage of the conference in something that was called a debate there is only one side of the argument, that is not a debate.”
The Conservative politician shouted from the front row of a separate main stage event that the views being presented were “one sided” and the discussion had wrongly been billed as a “debate”.
He dubbed the event – titled, “The meaning of sex: Gender Critical Debate” and chaired by shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho – “curated hatred”.
In response to Mr Boff’s heckles, former Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies – who was on the panel – said she would not apologise for defending the rights of women and girls.
The Conservative Party has been contacted for comment.
